About 11,000 people saw Barack Obama speak at the Coors Events Center on Tuesday, but some of the most memorable interactions with the president happened off-campus with people who didn't even have tickets to his speech.

The buzz around Obama's surprise detour to University Hill has already renamed a pizza, turned a restaurant wall into a tourist attraction and thrust one student and her cup of yogurt into the national spotlight.

Before his speech at the University of Colorado, Obama decided to stop off at The Sink, a popular diner among CU students. Even for a restaurant that once employed Robert Redford and was featured on the Food Network, it was quite a shock when employees found out the president would be stopping by.

"It was a shock to everyone, staff and guests," said floor manager Beki Fiala, who was working that night. "All of a sudden, they just take us into the back room and start sweeping us."

As Obama worked his way through the crowd, stunned dinner-goers snapped pictures on their cellphones.

"He was very personable and extremely pleasant," Fiala said. "He was cracking jokes the whole time."

Fellow floor manager Dan Williams had a memorable picture of his own. A picture of Williams shaking hands with the president ended up on the front page of the Daily Camera.

"I wasn't even working that day; I just had a manager's meeting and I was hanging out," said Williams, whose phone has been exploding since the photo. "It was a very honoring and humbling experience."

Before Obama left, he ordered a pizza and then signed his name on the wall next to Food Network personality Guy Fieri, who once featured the restaurant on his show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives." Williams said people have been stopping in all day to take pictures of the signature.

The pizza, which used to be called the "Sinkza," was renamed the "POTUS" on Wednesday morning.

"It seemed logical," said Ricardo Ramos, general manager. "The pizza was already famous after 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.' But now people want to know what he ordered."

Fiala said it didn't take long for the president's visit to start drawing interest.

"I would say it took about an hour," she said. "Then our phones were ringing, and we had a long waiting list of people wanting to come."

Mo Montoya and Wendi Van Lake hadn't been to The Sink since they were CU students more than 10 years ago. But when Van Lake read about Obama's stop there, she felt a visit was in order.

"I was pretty excited to say that I had been in the exact same place as Obama," she said as she and Montoya dined at the restaurant Wednesday evening.

They didn't order a pizza, but now that they know the POTUS is on the menu, Montoya said they may be back soon.

"Maybe next time," he said.

On Tuesday, as the president was preparing to leave The Sink, he got a splash of yogurt on his pants courtesy of an excited student looking to shake his hand. Within hours of Obama mentioning her in his speech, "Yogurt Girl," aka Kolbi Zerbest, a CU student, became an Internet sensation.

Zerbest has been at the center of a media frenzy and even appeared on the "Today" show Wednesday, where she said while it was her yogurt, she was not the one who spilled it on Obama.

"Right as I'm shaking his hand, the paparazzi kicks the bowl that I had placed on the ground onto the president," she said in the interview.

Zerbest said she expected the president to quickly clean up and keep moving. She was surprised when the incident turned into a short conversation.

"It was pretty exciting being able to talk to him for a minute or two," she said.

Though Obama did have to clean some yogurt from his pants, Zerbest said she and the Secret Service agents around him actually took more of the hit, something Obama also acknowledged in his speech.

"More hazardously, she spilled yogurt on the Secret Service," he said Tuesday. "The agent just stood there, just looking at her."

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